


Stay

by Alley_Skywalker



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F, Post-War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-12
Updated: 2016-06-12
Packaged: 2018-07-14 13:38:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7174022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alley_Skywalker/pseuds/Alley_Skywalker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pansy feels like she doesn’t quite fit in with anyone or anything after the war. But Daphne will always feel like home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stay

Pansy is not sure if she recognizes the world after the war.

They bury her father and her mother never quite comes out of mourning. Her elder brother marries a girl who watched her father die in battle in a quiet, private ceremony, which would have been nearly inappropriate for the Rosier heir in other times. She and Draco break off their engagement and she doesn’t know if it is strange or a relief that no one shames them for it the way they should. Daphne and Theodore, who _should_ have been engaged by this point never get there. They pay reparations – some get hit more than others. The Parkinsons sell their townhouse in Millan and their estate up in Scotland. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s unfortunate. Politically, the situation is bad, but Pansy is too numb by that point to care. It is probably a good thing she never intended to go into politics.

She finds a beautiful lakeside cabin house out in the country and buys it for cash. It’s a nice, peaceful place with a view on the water and the large trees surrounding it – half of the trees are evergreens and she thinks that’s nice, especially in the winter. She goes there to think, to breathe, to get away from the stifling atmosphere of the post-war politics and blaming game, everyone maneuvering to get a footing in the new world. Pansy doesn’t particularly care who comes out on top in this game anymore. The world she knew as a child is gone, probably forever.

The more time she spends at the cabin house, the more she likes it and the less she wants to go out into society. Initially, she had plans to go to France or Germany for a while but by autumn she begins to realize that there’s no reason to go abroad when she could just stay there, in the woods, by the water with her books and spells and small potions lab.

It isn’t that she’s never lonely. She’s not used to being alone – in her childhood and adolescence Pansy had always been social and participated in activities with her age mates with an enthusiastic capacity for socializing. She had been the Queen of Slytherin, a social force to be reckoned with. But it is more the attention she misses than specific people, and there is nothing she can do about that now.

The one person she _does_ miss is Daphne. The lake outside her window reminds her of the late spring days she and Daphne would go swimming in the lake at Hogwarts and how they would scare each other by pretending to be the Giant Squid by grabbing each other’s feet under the water. The memory brings a smile to her face, but she isn’t certain that she can ever regain that feeling of lightness, even if Daphne comes back into her life. The couple of times they had seen each other in London the meetings – in public – were a little stinted, a little strained, both of them feeling like they were being watched, by everyone, from all sides of the war.

Pansy never thinks that Daphne would come to see her here, in her place of quiet retreat. She’s hardly ever wrong about people, but this time…

 

“I don’t understand, aren’t you happy to see me?” Daphne grins, throwing her head back to allow her long hair to fly away from her face and slip from her shoulders. “Especially after it took me so long to find out where you’ve been hiding out.”

Pansy rolls her eyes and steps aside to let Daphne in. “I don’t hide here. I live here in peace and quiet. Come in before it starts raining.”

Daphne spins around in a circle, taking in the sitting room. “Small but cozy. I think I would like it if it wasn’t so socially reclusive. I never thought of you as the type, Pans.”

Pansy runs a hand through her hair which she keeps cut very short these days. She did always like it shorter, no matter how much her mother tried to convince her of the opposite – _a proper Lady ought to have long hair._ “London is only an apparition away if I want to see anyone. But few people know to find me here, including the annoying ones.”

“I found you.” Daphne makes for the wide windowsill seat and hops up, tucking her legs underneath herself. She doesn’t even think to stop and ask for permission, making herself comfortable in Pansy’s home as though it were her own.

Pansy cannot help but smile. “You always do. Do you want tea?”

“With this weather? Oh yes.”

Pansy makes them tea and they sit on the windowsill and talk. It’s strange how easily they fall back together, how little effort they need to understand each other. Where Draco had become nearly foreign to Pansy after everything, Daphne is still the same.

Perhaps not _exactly_ the same. Her parents had left the country and gone to Austria right after everything happened. She had told Pansy that the British Ministry of Magic was negotiating with Austrian authorities to have them deported back, so they moved to Sweden, because their magical laws would offer protection from extradition. But it was not a permanent solution, as the Greengrasses did not own any property in Sweden and the magical laws there also made it difficult to transfer in money made from property sales abroad. “It’s a huge pain,” Daphne says as she tells Pansy of the newest development in this saga.

“Is this why you chose to become a solicitor?”

“Merlin, no.” Daphne laughs. “I don’t even know why. But I wanted a job and a position turned up. I took the classes needed and took the job. It wasn’t like I was going to fulfill my destiny of being the perfect Pureblood Wife. I don’t know if anyone will anymore – though my sister is dead set on trying. I don’t know if we’ll ever get back to that.”

Pansy shrugs. “Maybe it’s best we don’t. I was never quite the proper Pureblood anything. Not really.”

Daphne laughs brightly. “Just because your mother disapproves of your hair…”

They smile at each other and the old joke. Outside, the rain begins to fall as the daylight fades. Pansy flicks her wand at the fireplace and a lively flame comes alive in the hearth.

“I wish you would come back to… I mean…” Daphne pauses and bites her lip. “I wish I got to see you more. I miss you and you’re always away.”

‘I’m just here.”

“It’s not so horrible out there, not really. You could get a job… I know that sounds scandalous, but having a career is actually nice. You would be good at it and…it would keep your thoughts away.”

Pansy looks away, out into the rain. “How do you know I have thoughts that need keeping away.”

Daphne sighs and takes her hand. “Because I know you. And because I used to have the thoughts too. Everyone does.”

Pansy looks back at her, reaches out to run her hand through Daphne’s long, chestnut hair. “What I need is for you to stay here with me. London is just an apparition away.”

Daphne seems to think about it. She pulls Pansy closer and looks into her eyes. “Oh, Pans.” She kisses her, long and sweet – they’d never done it before but somehow it doesn’t surprise either of them. It also doesn’t surprise either of them when Pansy wraps her arms around Daphne’s waist and pulls her into her lap, drawing out their kiss for as long as she can.

“Stay here,” Pansy urges. “Just for some time. If you hate it we can try a London flat next.”

Daphne closes her eyes, presses her forehead against Pansy’s and takes a deep breath. She listens to the rain outside and the crackling of the fire in the fireplace. She feels Pansy’s warm body under and around her and knows how much she has missed her. “Alright,” she says finally. “I’ll stay.”


End file.
